Endocrine Abstracts

Understanding the dynamic control of hormonal and metabolic homeostasis requires a description of the input, secretory and output mechanisms that underlie the life cycle of hormone pulses. Whilst input stimuli and hormone output have been measured, in vivo measurements of the blood microcirculation during a secretory pulse, and signalling at the cell and population level in the intact organ have not. To achieve this long-standing question, we recently developed a strate...

All higher life forms critically depend on hormones being rhythmically released by the anterior pituitary. The proper functioning of this gland is dynamically controlled by a complex set of regulatory mechanisms that ultimately determine the fine tuning of endocrine cells. Strikingly, the pituitary needs to retain its integrity in order secrete highly ordered hormone pulses (up to a thousand fold rise in hormone levels!) while it displays an apparently heterogeneous distributi...